This Book, "1776"

1776

This book, "1776" covers the military side of the year of 1776 with

characteristic insight and a gripping narrative, adding new scholarship and a

fresh perspective to the beginning of the American Revolution. It was a hard and confusing time. As British and American politicians struggled to reach a compromise, events on the ground escalated until war was inevitable. It also said the dismal conditions that troops on both sides had to endure, including an unusually harsh winter, and the role that luck and the whims of the weather played in helping the colonial forces hold off the world's greatest army. They also effectively explore the importance of motivation and troop morale, a tie was as good as a win to the Americans, while anything short of overwhelming victory was disheartening to the British, who expected a swift end to the war. The redcoat retreat from Boston, for example, was particularly humiliating for the British, while the minor American victory at Trenton was magnified despite its limited strategic importance.

Some of the strongest passages in "1776" are the revealing and well-rounded portraits of the Georges on both sides of the Atlantic. King George III, so often portrayed as a bumbling, arrogant fool, is given a more thoughtful treatment, who shows that the king considered the colonists to be petulant subjects without legitimate grievances, an attitude that led him to underestimate the will and capabilities of the Americans. At times he seems shocked that war was even necessary. The great Washington lives up to his considerable reputation in these pages, relaying on private correspondence to balance the man and the myth, revealing how deeply concerned Washington was about the Americans' chances for victory, despite his public optimism. Perhaps more than any other man, he realized how fortunate they were to merely survive the year, and he willingly lays the responsibility for their good fortune in the hands of God rather than his own.

General Information on David McCullough

David McCullough is an American historian and bestselling author. A two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize, he has been called a "master of the art of narrative history." His books include The Johnstown Flood, The Great Bridge, The Path Between the Seas, Mornings on Horseback, Brave Companions, Truman, and John Adams. His most recent book, 1776, was a New York Times and Amazon bestseller. None of his books have ever been out of print, a rare feat for an author with many published works.

McCullough was educated at Shady Side Academy, a private high school in his hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Yale University, where he received his bachelor's degree with honors in English literature in 1955, and became a member of Skull and Bones. At Yale as an undergraduate with a first interest in art, he ate lunch many times with Thornton Wilder, who inspired McCullough to become a writer.

McCullough has been an editor, essayist, teacher, lecturer, and familiar presence on public television, as host of Smithsonian World, The American Experience, and narrator of numerous documentaries including Ken Burns' The Civil War and Napoleon. He has also narrated portions of the motion picture Seabiscuit. He is a past president of the Society of American Historians and has also been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has received 31 honorary degrees.

In October 2002, McCullough delivered the 13th annual T.H. White Lecture, sponsored by the Joan Shorenstein Center on